Image: Maori Battalion route marching during training at Maadi, Egypt, during World War II. Taken by an official photographer.

Roi (Roy) Te Punga (Te Atiawa descent) was born in a house at White’s Line in Waiwhetu, Wellington, the third of six children, in 1919; and was raised in Halcombe, a railway town near Feilding in the Manawatu. His father, Hamuera Te Punga, was a Lutheran minister at the St John’s Lutheran Church in Kimber St, Halcombe. He had met his wife, a Chicago school teacher while studying at a Lutheran institution in Illinois in the early 1900s.

Roy attended Feilding Agricultural High School, and along with his older brother Hamuera Paul, a lawyer, graduated with degrees from Victoria University before signing up for service overseas with the 28th Maori Battalion. Hamuera Paul was a major in the Maori Battalion when he was killed in action, aged 28, in Italy in 1944. Roy served as a captain in the Battalion before he was wounded at Tokrouna, Tunisia, in April 1943.

After the war, Roy continued his post-graduate university studies which he completed with an MA and a Diploma in Social Work. In the early 1950s, he came to the attention of the then Secretary for Justice, Sam Barnett, and was employed as a probation officer – a profession in which he would make his mark, where the emphasis of Roi’s policy decisions was on keeping people in the community, rather than seeing them behind bars. He was appointed the nation’s Chief Probation officer in the late 1960s. He was the consummate public servant, concerned about the welfare of others, throughout his life.

Date: 1941
Ref: DA-01341-F
Members of the 28th New Zealand (Maori) Battalion being trained in the use of weapons, in a desert camp in Egypt during World War II. Photograph taken in 1941 by an unidentified photographer.

ROI TE PUNGA 5

Ref: 1/4-019365-F
Three members of the World War II, Maori infantry in the Western Desert, North Africa. From left to right: P Clarke, T Bryers and W H Cooper. Photographer unidentified.

ROI TE PUNGA 6

Date: [Between 1939 and 1945]
Ref: 1/4-019181-F
Unidentified members of the Maori Battalion in the Western Desert, North Africa, during World War II. Photographer unidentified.

ROI TE PUNGA 7

Ref: 1/4-019388-F
Members of the Maori Battalion advancing in battle area under fighting conditions in the Western Desert during World War II. Taken by unidentified photographer.
Note on back of file print reads: "This photograph taken in an actual battle area under fighting conditions gives some idea of what an advance by Maori infantry looks like to German and Italian troops fighting their vain rearguard action in the Western Desert."

ROI TE PUNGA 8

Date: 6 May 1943 By: Elias, M D, active 1943
Ref: DA-03052-F
Unidentified World War 2 soldiers of the New Zealand Maori Battalion with New Zealand's Minister of Defence Frederick Jones, in Tunisia. Photograph taken by M D Elias, 6 May 1943

ROI TE PUNGA 9

Date: May 1943 By: Pattle, John Charlesfield, -1971
Ref: DA-10929-F
Original caption on back of War History DA file print reads: "27 Bty 5 Fd Regt NZA. [Takruna?] Heights taken by Maori Bn." Photograph taken by J C Pattle in May 1943.

ROI TE PUNGA 10

Date: [ca 18 Sept 1943] By: Kingan, J L (Rev), 1901-
Ref: DA-09822-F
View overlooking the Eastern face of Takrouna hill in Tunisia, North Africa, taken from the top of a building on the Southern end. Shows stone buildings and the rocky cliff face below the observation post. Some military personnel are observing the view. Photograph taken on 18 Sept 1943, by Father Kingan.
Other - Note on back of file print reads: "This photograph taken from the top of the building on Southern end of Takrouna hill, gives some idea of the difficiulty which faced a small party of Maoris [sic], when they scaled the Eastern Face to establish an artillery post there during the fighting in Tunisia."

CONTACT

35 Pegasus Place
Palmerston North 4414
New Zealand
+64 27 357 9944

Images

Images where not specified are from the National Library Collection New Zealand. Department of Internal Affairs. War History Branch :Photographs relating to World War 1914-1918, World War 1939-1945, occupation of Japan, Korean War, and Malayan Emergency. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand